The National Fund for Technology Transfer and Commercialization has officially funded the SDIC (Guangdong) Investment Fund for Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements recently. The fund is jointly initiated and launched by SDIC Group and the Ministry of Science and Technology, the governments of Guangdong, Hubei and Chengdu as well as financial institutions. The 15 billion yuan RMB fund is managed by SDIC Venture Capital and is designed to deepen cooperation between a central enterprise, a central governmental department and local governments and strengthen the capability of national strategic team of science and technology to better serve regional development.

With strong support from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance, the National Fund for Technology Transfer and Commercialization has injected 3 billion yuan RMB into the SDIC (Guangdong) fund, the largest sum of money ever injected into a sub-fund by the National Fund for Technology Transfer and Commercialization. This is also an important move by SDIC Group, through its unique features and functions of State-owned capital, to support the establishment and construction of an international science and technology innovation center in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and to accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the key regional areas of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, etc..

Investment to focus on major regions and key industries

The newly-established fund will uphold the principle of “serving national strategy of innovation and transforming scientific and technological achievements”. In terms of investment direction, the fund will focus on four major areas: advanced manufacturing, electronics and information technology, materials and energy resources, and bio-pharmaceuticals. It will select projects from the scientific and technological achievements of national scientific and technological programs such as the national major science and technology program, the key 2030 projects of scientific and technological innovation, and the key R&D programs; and achievements of key regional scientific and technological programs. Selected projects should have high innovation level and strong market competitiveness, have the potential to become new emerging industries and to promote the transforming and upgrading of traditional industries, and are good for guaranteeing the realization of national strategic goals. Emphasis will be given to target at global science frontier, breaking bottle-neck barriers in national development, and meeting the needs of national key strategies; to highlight strategic, forward-looking and disruptive features; and develop core technology and key components and spare parts of bottle-necked technologies and cultivate innovation industrial clusters.

CanSemi project park

To support development of the “third pillar” strategic goal of the country's IC industry in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the fund has invested in the projects of Guangzhou CanSemi Technology Inc.,Guangzhou China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology Co.,Ltd., Guohua New Materials, AccoPower Semiconductor Co., Ltd.,Shenzhen CSL Vacuum Science and Technology Co., Ltd., Sageran, and Foshan Zhenzhi Micro Core Technology Co., Ltd., etc.The projects cover the sectors of equipment and downstream application of wafer fabrication, materials and components, and semiconductors. In the sector of bio-pharmaceuticals, the fund has invested in Jiayue Pharmaceutical Technology which has a leading innovative and highly efficient medicine transformation platform in the country, and MoonBioTech which owns the world's largest strain preservation. The fund has also invested in the areas of mRNA, cell therapy, major new drug development, protein and anti-body R&D to build a biological industrial circle for bio-pharmaceuticals.

Develop a sound environment for investment in and coordination of transformation of scientific and technological achievements

Minister Wang Zhigang of Science and Technology has said recently that (efforts should be made to) mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of various innovation players and enhance national strategy science and technology strength to build a national innovation system through development of core technologies and the new system concentrating on nationwide efforts and resources on key national undertakings; and connect the channels for science and technology, industry and finance, and optimize the policy system for enterprise innovations so as to speed up the transformation and application of (scientific and technological) achievements.

The launch of the fund is an important result of strengthened cooperation between SDIC Group and the Ministry of Science and Technology, and mobilizing various players to participate in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. In July 2018, SDIC Group and the Ministry of Science and Technology signed an agreement on strategic cooperation and the two sides aim to promote transformation/application and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements, guide local governments, financial capital and private investment to jointly build a State-owned scientific and technological innovation platform with its own outstanding features, and provide strong support to the transformation/application of national key scientific and technological projects and to regional innovation development.

In recent years, optimizing regional innovation development and coordinating the development of innovation environment have become the key contents of regional coordinated development strategy, and construction of three major international science innovation centers in Beijing, Shanghai and the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao has been accelerated. Before this, SDIC Group joined hands with Shanghai Municipal Government to have established the fund for transformation of scientific and technological achievements of national key projects; SDIC Group and the Ministry of Science and Technology cooperated with the governments of Beijing, Tianjin ad Hebei to have set up the SDIC Jingjinji science and technology achievements conversion venture investment fund to explore jointly the role of market in allocating resources and to accelerate the transformation/application of national key scientific and technological achievements.

SDIC Group signs a framework agreement on strategic cooperation with Guangdong Provincial People's Government

The launch of this fund is an important move of SDIC Group in beefing up its unique feature of a State-owned capital investment company and continuing its cooperation with local government in implementation of regional scientific and technological strategy which is designed to promote the construction of an international science innovation center through transformation of scientific and technological achievements. In December 2020, SDIC Group and the Guangdong Provincial People's Government signed a framework agreement on strategic cooperation and the two sides put forward the idea to set up a fund for transformation of scientific and technological achievements in order to strengthen comprehensive bilateral cooperation in the areas of emerging industries with strategic importance and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, support the construction of an international science and technology innovation center with global influence in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, and build a pillar that drives the development of regional innovation. Guangdong Province enlisted the launch of the fund as a key task in its 2021 Government Report.

SDIC Group has also signed a framework agreement on strategic cooperation with Hubei Provincial People's Government and the two sides agree that State-owned capital should be brought into full play of its role in guiding and stimulating investment, broadening investment areas and further intensifying its efforts in promoting the construction of cooperation projects. As the result of strategic cooperation between SDIC Group and the Chengdu Municipal Government, the fund is the first sub-fund ever invested by the Chengdu investment fund for transformation of key industrial projects and is expected to promote the upgrading of Chengdu's innovation capability, support development of its advanced manufacturing industry and help the municipality to build a regional science and technology center.

In the 14th Five-Year Plan, SDIC Group will actively explore effective ways to cultivate and develop emerging industries with strategic importance through equity investment funds, continue to use fund investment as a link to attract more social capital including that from the local governments and financial institutions to involve in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and build a sound industrial environment for coordinated investment.